Peonies have lovely flowers but I wish they would last longer...such large plants for so little bloom time makes them unsuitable in my small garden. However, I have grown some from seed at work. Paeonia mlokosewitschii does well (I also have seed but too few for the seedex's) and P. mollis bloomed for the first time this year. I have yet to see blooms on P. veitchii.

Peonies have lovely flowers but I wish they would last longer...such large plants for so little bloom time makes them unsuitable in my small garden. However, I have grown some from seed at work. Paeonia mlokosewitschii does well (I also have seed but too few for the seedex's) and P. mollis bloomed for the first time this year. I have yet to see blooms on P. veitchii.

Todd, I see your point, particularly with species such as P. japonica that have flowers that last only a day or two.

In addition to flowers, many species have fanciful seed pods, opening late in the season to reveal showy clusters of fleshy seed, bright red infertile ones and plumped up blackish fertile ones. I was touring a garden recently, and the "fruits" on several paonies stopped visitors dead in their tracks. Some paonies do indeed look quite ordinary in foliage, others are gorgeous in foliage. And lastly, some have attractive fall foliar color. I have a couple common P. lactiflora hybrids that turn a warm orange color in late summer, lasting for a couple months in this stage.

Fall color for a couple months!? If that happened here, I would think there was something wrong with the plant...

Yup, with this particular variety, named 'Koningin Wilhelmina', the foliage turns light orange in the summer, especially when it is hot and dry... it has looked this way since mid summer. Just ran out to check my label, I planted this in 2004, and this one always colors up this way.

Peony season is in full swing here in the Southern hemisphere.The first is one we've grown (in Australia) as Paeonia mascula ssp russii but there is a suggestion that it's actually P. kesrouanensis. Not looking the best this year, but that rose may have to go!